2013 Resolutions…an update on the year that was.

So back at the beginning of this year, I stupidly went and made some New Years Resolutions (you can read the original post here). Looking back, I was optimistic and full of enthusiasm…and then the year wore on, and things got in the way, and plans got made that weren’t on the list (read: holy shit WEDDING!) which meant that I feel I didn’t put as much effort into my resolutions as I should have. So, here goes…an update on how the resolutions went…or didn’t.

1. Get healthy – Yeah, this was a dismal failure. Not only did I not lose weight I *gained* weight. A fair bit more than I’m really comfortable with. I’m hoping on fixing this, but as a resolution, I sucked at it. As part of the whole “get healthy” thing, I tried really hard (went on Lite’n’Easy for 6 months!) but then it got too monotonous and I just couldn’t stomach the food any more. I’m really hoping that, after Christmas, I can focus on eating better and exercising more…something I really did try to do this year, but just failed at.

2. Stop bleeding money – This is something we have made headway on, but only because we had help. Massive shout-out to my parental units for being as awesome as they are and helping us out in a few tight spots this year. We aren’t bleeding money, we do have savings, our credit card doesn’t look feral and it looks like we will be able to afford to go on that holiday next year. We’ve also managed to score not one, but *two* trips to New Zealand over a 6 month period, which is pretty damn cool. I feel like we’re slowly getting on-top of this money thing…not sure how long that’ll last 😛

3. Work on getting my Microsoft Certification – FAIL. I failed at this spectacularly. Mainly because I focused so much on uni this past year. I have the materials I need to study and my new aim is to get it before June 2014. Wish me luck.

4. Attempt to finish my Bachelors degree – See above…getting my degree is tied to me certification (it’ll be my final 12 credit points) so it’s not going to be done until I get my certification. However, I have made awesome progress with the degree and I’m currently working on my final subject through OUA towards my degree. So, by June 2014, I should have that awesome piece of paper I’ve been working towards for nearly 10 years!

5. Not let work control my life – Now *THIS* I’ve managed to do. I do still check my emails of a weekend or even when on holidays, but it’s mostly just to mark a whole lot of logs as read or just delete everything. Work no longer controls my life the way it used to. Don’t get me wrong, I still love my job and love what I do, but I like to have downtime that doesn’t involve trying to fix a broken Windows Server.

6. I want to go on holidays somewhere that isn’t my own house – This has happened not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES this year, and we’ll be doing it again in January too! Very excited that we’ve managed to do this. While the holidays weren’t particularly long (the longest was 5 days), they were still a big enough break to make me relax and also appreciate my home more.

7. Go on a defensive driving course – Done and done. It was good fun, I really enjoyed it and it did teach me a lot. I still have some things I need to work on, but at least I know what to work on now. Certainly something I would recommend for everyone to go off and do, even if you’ve been driving for a long time.

8. Stress less and smile more – I have managed to do this, I feel. I am still pessimistic in some ways but I can see the lighter side of things, I don’t take everything so seriously and I have learnt to laugh at the stupid things in life. There have been a few moments this year where I realise that the “old me” would’ve cracked the shits and yet the “new me” just laughs and moves on. I figure we’re making progress.

So now that I look back on it, there’s only a few things that I missed out on…so now I know what I need to work on for next year. Although I won’t be making resolutions…stay tuned for the next post. ^_^